figurine

Pre-classic female figurine, with head, arms, legs and exaggerated hips. Museum's slip catalogue: 'FIGURINES, human, 16* fragments of, in a whitish pottery. Found by a workman when digging a trench, about six feet from the surface in the Panuco district of the State of Vera-Cruz, not far from Tampico. All seemingly represent females, the hips much exaggerated. The Mongoloid type is noticeable. Note the small hunchback figure. The natives of the Panuco district were of the same race as the Mayas of Yucatan. *6 displayed, 10 in store.'

Early: -1000 Late: -200

H: 33 mm

America Mexico Veracruz Panuco.near.Tampico

McPherson, John Dr

clay fired.clay

McPherson, John Dr

Clay figurines appear in the graves and household debris of the earliest farmers in Mexico and continued to be made and used by successive civilisations until the Spanish Conquest. Those made by the village farming communities of the Mexican Neolithic most often represent women, with exaggeration of the breasts and buttocks perhaps reflecting a concern with human fertility and increase. Images of the later period, especially those from the great classical city of Teotihuacan, illustrate a variety of gods and human types, reflecting the richness and diversity of an elaborate priest-temple cult.

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